A young woman's naked body is found in the undergrowth of Holland Park. Gagged, with her wrists and ankles bound, she has been posed, almost like a statue, kneeling as if in prayer - or begging for mercy.

Stuffed into the woman's mouth is a wad of paper on which is written a verse by a Victorian poet, renowned in his time for his sadomasochistic tendencies.

Progress on the investigation is frustratingly slow, until a link is made to another murder that occurred exactly a year earlier...